We tend to compartmentalize both people and works of fiction into different areas. People tend to come from a certain social group and books tend to belong to a specific genre that follow a certain stylistic guideline. But when those rules are broken – people enlighten us about their society and write in a genre that break the norms that make up that collection of fiction – there is a certain element of enlightenment that occurs within the readers of that work. Drew Hayden Taylor may have been thinking what would classic science-fiction themes be like through the eyes of the Indigenous community members but he has added some thought to the greater discussions of the human condition with his collection of short stories called Take Us to Your Chief.

Page 14 – A Culturally Inappropriate Armageddon

“But you never go on the air!”

“I do when Earth is welcoming aliens from . . .” The news crawl at the bottom of the television screen revealed the ship had come from the direction of the Pleiades cluster. “Pleiades . . . Where the hell is that? Sounds Greek. Besides our news announcer hasn’t shown up today. He’s probably at home watching this. I guess he’d prefer to watch history rather than be a part of it. And where is Pat? I need him to write me up some copy.”

Emily was on fire now. There had been rumblings from the board about the station taking a new direction, exploring different options. Emily knew this was just board-speak for getting a new station manager. She had rolled with all the new technologies over the years that had transformed the once small and humble radio station into a slightly larger organization, one of the only independent broadcasters left in the province. After twenty-seven years with her at the helm, maybe those fine listeners who owned the smoke shacks, gas stations and an arts and crafts store felt the pot known as C-RES needed to be stirred a bit. Emily was desperate to keep this job she loved and hated at the same time. This just might be the way.

“Come on, work with me. Can we give this thing an Aboriginal spin?”

This book does something more profound that give us a collection of sci-fi stories. The stories have the classic element of any science-fiction story (Aliens, possessed toys, artificial intelligence, governmental control mechanisms) but by adding Indigenous themes to these stories, there are some new truths and ideas that come forward to us non-Indigenous readers. These may be simple stories but they do what great literature should do.

Page 44 I am . . . I am

Chambers and King were not close friends; they seldom socialized outside the office. Instead, they found their professional relationship quite suitable. Respect was perhaps the best word to describe the affiliation. Still, he was not particularly happy to see her in his office confessing something he had theorized less than a week ago. Such a rapid turnaround in beliefs was difficult to deal with.

Chambers took a deep breath. “Yeah, I did the SDDPP isn’t the only one that can grow and learn from its mistakes. ”

“The AI . . . how is it depressed?”

Putting her elbows on her knees, Chambers leaned forward to do her best to explain the situation. “It’s depressed over the desolation and destruction of Indigenous people all across the world.” It took a moment for her statement to sink in. She could see the furrows in King’s brow developing. “I think it wanted to be Native. And it didn’t like how the story ended.”

The style of the book is direct and to-the-point. There is no flowery prose or excess descriptive wording. The plot moves to it’s climax – either unwelcoming or shocking or unassuming – and it is down. A new reality exists for the protagonists – simple and shocking. But in getting to that point there are a lot of idea that thoughts to consider, and empathy comes easily for many characters by any reader.

Pages vii-viii Forward by Drew Hayden Taylor

A million years ago when I was a child, I was always fascinated by what could be. I think this was primarily because I was surrounded by what is what was. As a Native person, I was constantly and importantly made aware of our heritage, our culture, everything from the past that made us unique and special. Also I was conscious of the fact that, technologically speaking, we were at a bit of a disadvantage compared to those who showed up one day for dinner and never left. I clearly remember the first time I was television, played with a computer, got an electric toothbrush, etc. Darn clever, those white people Native people constantly wonder at the clever innovations and devices the dominant culture feels the need to create – everything from vibrators to nuclear bombs.

Admittedly, First Nations and science fiction don’t usually go together. In fact, they could be considered rather unusual topics to mention in the same sentence, much like fish and bicycles. As genre fiction goes. they are practically strangers, except for maybe the occasional parallel universe story. Many would argue that Native people are not known for their space-travelling abilities. Nor their mastery and innovation of that aforementioned modern and world-altering technology. We may have known what to do with every part of a buffalo, but how to cannibalize and utilize the parts from an Apple laptop to make a pair of moccasins . . . the less said the better.

Drew Hayden Taylor has done certainly something unique and brilliant with his collection of science fiction short stories called Take Us To Your Chief. He has given an interesting insight to the human condition by exploring Native perspective to classical science fiction themes. In short, he has given us all a great piece of literature for all of us to ponder over.